Zofingen · Lot 4024
Hare
Oil on wood
Original catalogue wording
Feldhase
Oel auf Holz
Catalogue period : 2025-06-07
Published result : 650 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 400
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
August Schleich
Born : 1814Died : 1865
An animal painter established in Munich, August Schleich is particularly associated with Rauchmalerei, a process in which the image emerges by removing highlights from a layer of soot. Born in Munich in 1814, he died in the city on 26 December 1865; according to the biographical source, he devoted himself almost exclusively to animal painting. Soot deposited on a plate or sheet by the flame of a candle is scraped away to reveal the light areas; the finished image is then fixed with varnish. The source compares the scraping gesture to mezzotint. The process was also taken up by the Munich animal painter Eugen von Kramer.
The son of the engraver Johann Karl, or Johann Carl, Schleich, whose pupil he was, August studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He was the brother of the engravers Karl and Adrian Schleich. His activity was not limited to painting: he made etchings and lithographs, and also experimented with galvanography, a process attributed to Franz von Kobell in 1842. The sources also describe him as an animal draughtsman, engraver and porcelain painter.
Sale notices offer an overview of the range of subjects and supports associated with his name: a boar in oil on mounted paper, dated 1855, and a landscape with a wood depot and shepherd, dated 1835, appear alongside hare and roebuck heads executed in Rauchmalerei on plates around 1850. They also describe two chamois in a mountain landscape, as well as a pen-and-brown-ink drawing depicting a house behind a group of trees.
This profile brings together identity references for August Schleich and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
2 references are documented at Zofingen, Dobiaschofsky. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.
Works recorded at auction
Dobiaschofsky · Lot 3271
Jagdstillleben mit Buntspecht und weiterem Singvogel.
Oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Original catalogue wording
Jagdstillleben mit Buntspecht und weiterem Singvogel.
Öl auf Papier, auf Leinwand
Catalogue period : 2017-05-13
Published result : 40 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 200
View the lot at the auction house ↗Sources and references
SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
Documentation updated : 2026-10-19